August is not the month when most
people’s thoughts turn to quilting, wilting maybe, but not quilting.However, a number of folks in Q.U.I.L.T.S.
have been working already at making this a new and even better year for our
guild.(Every year’s better, isn’t
it!)Pat Terry has arranged for several
workshops for the coming year and
found a reliable place to hold them.Lois Bena has undertaken her first issue of our quilting newsletter and mastered a new e-delivery system
for it.Kathie Hermance and I have had
our first meeting about next year’s quilt show: a 14 month head start!

What we
need is hands and heads: a set of hands that can join the guild board as the
secretary, and heads coming up with ideas, all sorts of ideas.New ideas for the quilt show, for
challenges, for how we organize ourselves, whatever.

One idea
that I want to bring to September’s meeting is Friendship Groups.There are only three in our guild that I am
aware of but I know that my group more than doubles my quilting pleasure.First of all, it means that I have not just
once a month to gather with others and talk quilting.Secondly, the members are a wellspring of help: tying, pinning,
problem solving.Plus, when one of us
learns a new technique we pass that on to the other members.I intend to take some time at September’s
meeting to encourage and enable guild members to find others who are interested
in starting their own friendship group.See you then!

Anita
Paul, President

NEW DELIVERY POLICY

When the cost of postage increased last May, Q.U.I.L.T.S. board members
realized that our guild could save a significant amount of money by adopting a
delivery policy used by so many other clubs and businesses, and they approved
the decision to send our newsletter by email to everyone who has provided an
email address.Those with no email
address will receive the newsletter by mail as before.There are bound to be glitches, but I am
confident that they can be worked out by communicating with me; I am committed
to making sure you receive a newsletter, and are happy with it.The most current newsletter will also be
available on our website (http://tri-cityquilts.tripod.com).Thank you in advance for your understanding
and your patience.Lois

FALL 2007
PROGRAM NOTES

SEPTEMBER 6:MARLOUS CARTER

September’s program opens our new year with the
introduction of Marlous Carter, a local treasure of a quilter and designer.Her “Don’t
Be Afraid to Dream” presentation will take us through her growth as a quilter
with dreams to be a quilt designer.

Marlou started out 12 years ago
creating original pieced borders for her counted cross-stitch projects,
transforming them into unique wall hangings.In 2005 and 2006, her patterns “Log Cabin Loco” and “Wander’n Roam” were
top sellers at International Quilt Markets.Since then, she has ventured into designing tote bags and working with
fabric companies on quilts highlighting their products.She represents Maywood Studio now, promoting
some of their new lines of fabric.

Step #2 of the
Mystery Quilt will also be available.If you were not at the June meeting and didn’t receive Step 1, please
ask for it at the September meeting.

Remember to bring…

·Your hand-sewn name tag

·“Show and Tell” project

·quilts for Northeast kids

·a friend or new member

·“Fall leaf print” Fat Quarter- any
color family

OCTOBER 4:Kris Gregson Moss – Lecture and Trunk
Show – “The Wanderings of a Fabric Artist”

Kris looks
at color, movement, shape, form and negative space differently from most
quilters.She examines the tiniest
parts of nature from all directions and sometimes translates the vision into a
three dimensional work of art or a curved abstraction of the object, and
sometimes it is more realistic.

The following is taken from the
Fiber Revolution website:Kris Gregson
Moss looks at color, movement, shape, from, and negative space differently from
most art quilters. She examines the tiniest parts of nature from all
directions: the inside out and the outside in of a flower, for example.
Sometimes her eye and sewing skills translate the vision into a three
dimensional work of art, or a curved abstraction of the object, and sometimes
the work is more realistic.

Our
“Quilts from the Heart Project” is one of our longest-running charitable
efforts.It’s estimated that
Q.U.I.L.T.S. donates about 100 quilts to Northeast Parent and Child Society
each year.Some members have a special
design in mind for kid’s quilts that they just don’t seem to have the time to
“get to.” This would be a great time to bring your “cut out” pieces to put
together at this meeting, keeping in mind that Q.U.I.L.T.S. is more than a
once-a-month-meeting of friendship and laughter.We have a mission; there are children who need us, and who are
grateful, even if we can’t see their smiles (and tears) when they choose the
quilt that will be their own symbol that someone cares about them.

If you
don’t have your own “kit” prepared, there will be a few available, but we need
your help, please!

Please do some cutting, print
out some instructions, put it all in a plastic bag and bring it to one of our
fall meetings or to the November Sew-In.The kids at Northeast will thank you!(42 x 60 is a good size for
small children and 54 x 72 is a good size for older kids)

We
will need members to bring their sewing machines, a few irons and ironing
boards. If you have a “friendship group,” perhaps two people could bring sewing
machines and another member could bring an ironing board and iron.

There
will be no Mystery Quilt Step distributed at this meeting in order to give you
time to work on your first three steps.

Start
the holiday season with your quilting friends at our annual holiday party.
We’ll share finger desserts and beverages. Members with last names beginning A-L are each asked to bring a dessert
to share.

We
will be collecting mittens and socks for the kids at Northeast Parent and
Child, and also gifts for the women at the Women’s Shelter. These gifts do not
have to be wrapped, but if you do, please note the contents on the outside of
the package.Personal grooming products
would be appreciated by the ladies as well as other items of care and comfort.

GET
READY:The next Mystery Quilt Step will
be distributed in JANUARY.

Also remember to bring…

·Your hand-sewn name tag

·“Show and Tell” projects

·Quilts for Northeast kids

·Mittens, socks, and women’s Shelter gifts

·A friend or new member

·Fat Quarter – Non-holiday winter scene–
any color background

We’d like to welcome guests and new members who
joined us at the May 2007 meeting:

Peg
Foley impressed us with her work at the March 2007 Q.U.I.L.T.S. meeting, and
this fall, will be offering a workshop that will accommodate only 25
participants.The workshop will be held
at Eastern Parkway Methodist Church
(on the corner of Eastern Parkway and Palmer Avenue.)The cost of the workshop will be $25.oo, and the materials fee will be $15.oo

Peg
Foley is a fiber artist and art educator. She has three grown daughters and
lives in Schenectady with her husband John. She teaches art full time at
Schenectady High School and shows her artwork throughout the Northeast.
Peg spent fifteen years working as a metal smith and museum educator before
turning to fiber arts as a medium for expression. Her work draws from the
quilt maker’s process of fragmenting, layering and restructuring, a process,
which often mirrors life. Much of her work reflects a struggle with
perception of time as we move through space: how that perception is altered by
the structures we operate within.

Fiber
Collage Workshop, Finding Composition

We
will start off the workshop creating a palette of textured two-dimensional
materials using mono-printing techniques and painting on a variety of papers
and fabrics. While our palette dries you will be able to take a look at artist
Peg Foley’s work in terms of the creative process, the principles of art and
design, composition, and how one becomes
inspired and goes about creating even when the creative juices seem not to
be flowing.

Workshop
participants will then use a variety of collage techniques including fusing,
sewing and gluing, along with the palette of materials to create a piece of
artwork which we will frame and send
home ready to hang.

Participants
may want to bring small, fairly flat artifacts to be included in their collage,
such as, special lace, buttons, watch faces, interesting ribbon, braid, metal
or plastic filigree, or special paper or stamps etc.

Participants
should bring scissors for cutting paper. All other supplies will be provided.

If you’d
like to attend this workshop, please call Pat Terry (372-8431)as soon as possible to reserve
your place in class.

NEWS
FROM THE FRIENDSHIP GROUPS

In addition to our
monthly meetings, a few groups meet for a chance to sew and chat and share
their work:

The KNV’s are
putting the finishing touches on the row robin challenge they undertook this
past spring and plan on showing off their finished quilts during an upcoming
fall meeting.Next up – the group has
challenged themselves to Simple Sampler Quilt, a pattern by Debbie Beaves for
Connecting Threads.They expect to have
these quilts ready for show and tell at an early Spring 2008 meeting.

ØThe Urban Myth group enjoyed the “strip” quilts
they all added to each month, and donated to Northeast when they reached a good
size.They also enjoy sharing the
making of blocks for one member’s quilt and each contributing a block for a
raffle, like we do with fat quarters.Sometimes a pattern or technique is demonstrated.

ØAnother friendship group meets once per month for
an evening of handwork and laughter, usually without specific projects on the
agenda.Sometimes they do work on guild
projects such as preparing fabrics to sell at the quilt show guild booth or
tying quilts for northeast.Of course
every meeting includes two very important parts – “show and tell” and dessert!

You bring a "Fat Quarter" for the Basket -
and enter your name - one name is drawn each month and that "Lucky
Lady" wins all of the Fat Quarters in the Basket. Give a little and
receive a lot.. Our selections are as follows for the following
months:

If you have not yet signed
up to be a member of this year’s Q.U.I.L.T.S. you can send your membership fee
to Kathy Wagner, 180 Dahlia St., Schenectady, NY 12306, or Virginia McGarry,
1450 Belmont Ave., Schenectady, NY 12309. The fee is $25.00 for the year.

NAME
________________________________________________________________

ADDRESS
_____________________________________________________________

PHONE ____________________________E-MAIL ___________________________

Please include this slip with your check

STRIP QUILTS
FOR KIDS

On September 6th we will
be starting a new cooperative effort to make easy quilt tops for the Northeast
quilt donations. Each month participants will be asked to add one strip to one
quilt-top-in-progress. To start we are asking for volunteers to bring a strip
of fabric to the September meeting, an 8” to 12” section cut across the full
width of the fabric.Your strip will
then be passed on to another participant while you take home a new piece to
work with.Your total commitment to this project will
be to add ONE pieced or plain strip to a quilt top each month. Details will be explained, and questions answered, at the
September meeting.Don’t forget to
bring your fabric strip to get started!

QUILTS NORTH
would like to share their program information with our guild.Schedule for the year: